Man gets three months jail for foul-mouthing judge

MADURAI: Badmouthing trial judges and petitioning the President, Prime Minister, etc against them in abusive language have landed a man, already convicted in a woman harassment case, in jail for contempt of court.
When a division bench of justice P N Prakash and justice B Pugalendhi, who took up the suo motu contempt petition against G Manoharan, found him guilty and sentenced him to undergo jail term for three months, Manoharan’s counsel placed a request before the bench. “In the event of this court sentencing him to undergo imprisonment, some leniency may be shown to him on the period of imprisonment and the prison authorities may be directed to provide milk and rice instead of onion. If milk is not provided to him, he will suffer low blood pressure.” The judges directed the prison authorities to consider his dietary request.
Earlier, Manoharan turned down an offer of legal assistance and justified his actions, prompting the bench to remark it was ‘sadly mistaken’ since it had initially felt Manoharan was venting out his anger after having lost legal battles in civil and criminal courts.
The case pertains to Manoharan picking up an argument with his neighbour, an army man. His neighbour had won a civil suit against him after which there was bad blood between them. On March 5,2006, Manoharan picked up an argument with his neighbour’s family, abusing them and resorted to flashing. He had also attempted to misbehave with the armyman’s daughter.
After a trial lasting six years, the magistrate sentenced him for three years imprisonment against which he filed an appeal before the Virudhunagar sessions court, which is still pending. Meanwhile, he filed a petition before Madras high court to quash the proceedings which was rejected by the appeal examiner, citing non-maintainability.
Irate over this, Manoharan sent representations in Tamil to the registrar, the President and prime minister, badmouthing the judicial magistrate and court staff and levelled allegations against them after which contempt proceedings were initiated.
When the petition first came up before the bench on March 22, Manoharan rejected legal assistance and justified his actions.
The judges likened the judiciary to a Hindu undivided joint family, where the Supreme Court is the Karta (eldest member), the high court, the elder brother and the subordinate courts to younger siblings.
“A clear message should go to all, that the eldest brother will brook no such vituperative insult to their younger siblings,” the court said, adding that it would be misplaced sympathy if such persons were treated with kid gloves.